Thompson Family

I'm most grateful to G.L. Thompson for a careful analysis of census and other records regarding this family.

First Generation

My great-grandfather Conder Jerome wrote in 1937 that his great-grandparents were John (called Johnnie) Thompson and Nancy Cawthorne, and listed their children. So far I have no information on John's parents, and while I feel pretty sure that his wife belongs to the Cawthorne or Cauthen family who were making their way from Essex Co. VA through Warren Co. NC to Mecklenburg Co. NC and adjacent SC in the late 1700s, I haven't identified her father either.

However, I may have been looking under the wrong rocks - G.L. Thompson told me that John's wife is listed as Catherine rather than Nancy in the 1850 and 1860 census records, so I need to revisit my earlier Cawthorne sources to see if I can find her under that name.

Conder Jerome wrote that Minerva Thompson also married Harvey Querry, but she married Franklin Poore as Thompson (1866) and is listed as Minerva C. Poor in the 1910 census.

Conder Jerome listed a son named Nelson about whom I had very little information when I first prepared this page. I now think that this is John Nelson Thompson who married Louisa B. Orr in 1847, and died in 1858, leaving four children: Bolivar (Boliver or Bolliver in some records), Octavia, Walter, and John Frank. Louisa died in 1861, and in April 1862, J.S. Reid was named as guardian of Bolivar and Walter, and W.P. Houston as guardian of Octavia and John Frank. Can anyone confirm this?

Other Resources

I am willing to pay for a DNA test by a male line descendant of any of the men whose names are in red above, or, if his ancestry can be proved, John Nelson Thompson. I have found no evidence that Larkin Thompson had any children, so I haven't flagged his name for testing.